Drug Facts - Methamphetamines

Overview

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive central
nervous system stimulant that can be injected,
snorted, smoked, or ingested orally. Methamphetamine
users feel a short yet intense "rush" when the drug
is initially administered. The immediate effects of
methamphetamine include increased activity and
decreased appetite. The drug has limited medical
uses for the treatment of narcolepsy, attention
deficit disorders, and obesity.

Most amphetamines distributed to the black market
are produced in clandestine laboratories.
Methamphetamine laboratories are, by far, the most
frequently encountered clandestine laboratories in
the United States. The ease of clandestine
synthesis, combined with tremendous profits, has
resulted in significant availability of illicit
methamphetamine. Large amounts of methamphetamine
are also illicitly smuggled into the United States
from Mexico.

Extent of Use

According to the 2008 National Survey on Drug Use
and Health (NSDUH), approximately 12.6 million
Americans aged 12 or older reported using
methamphetamine at least once during their
lifetimes, representing 5% of the population aged 12
or older. Approximately 850,000 (0.3%) reported past
year methamphetamine use and 314,000 (0.1%) reported
past month methamphetamine use.

The number of recent new users of methamphetamine
among persons aged 12 or older was 95,000 in 2008.
This estimate was significantly lower than the
estimate in 2002 (299,000), 2003 (260,000), 2004
(318,000), 2005 (192,000), 2006 (259,000), and 2007
(157,000). The average age of new methamphetamine
users aged 12 to 49 in 2008 was 19.2 years, which
was not significantly different from the average
ages between 2002 and 2007.

Results of the 2008 Monitoring the Future survey
indicate that 1.8% of eighth graders, 2.8% of tenth
graders, and 3.0% of twelfth graders reported
lifetime use of methamphetamine. In 2006, these
percentages were 2.7%, 3.2%, and 4.4%, respectively.

The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS)
study by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) surveys high school students on
several risk factors including drug and alcohol use.
Results of the 2007 survey indicate that 4.4% of
high school students reported using methamphetamine
at some point in their lifetimes. This is down from
6.2% in 2005 and 7.6% in 2003.

Approximately 1.9% of college students and 6.7% of
young adults (ages 19-28) surveyed in 2007 reported
lifetime use of methamphetamine.

According to data from the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, approximately 23.5% of State prisoners
and 17.9% of Federal prisoners surveyed in 2004
indicated that they used methamphetamine at some
point in their lives.

Health Effects

Long-term methamphetamine abuse can cause addiction,
anxiety, insomnia, mood disturbances, and violent
behavior. Additionally, psychotic symptoms such as
paranoia, hallucinations, and delusions (such as the
sensation of bugs crawling under the user's skin)
can occur. The psychotic symptoms can last for
months or years after methamphetamine use has
ceased.

Of an estimated 113 million emergency department
(ED) visits in the U.S. during 2006, the Drug Abuse
Warning Network (DAWN) estimates that 1,742,887 were
drug-related. DAWN data indicate that
methamphetamine was involved in 79,924 ED visits.

Treatment

From 1997 to 2007, the number of admissions to
treatment in which methamphetamine was the primary
drug of abuse increased from 53,694 in 1997 to
137,154 in 2007. Methamphetamine admissions
represented 3.3% of the total drug/alcohol
admissions to treatment during 1997 and 7.5% of the
treatment admissions in 2007. The average age of
those admitted to treatment for
methamphetamine/amphetamine during 2007 was 32
years.

Arrests & Sentencing

The National Drug Intelligence Center reported 2,597
Federal methamphetamine-related arrests during 2006.
This is down from 6,090 such arrests during 2006.

During FY 2008, there were 4,347 Federal defendants
sentenced for methamphetamine-related charges in
U.S. Courts. Approximately 97.5% of the cases
involved methamphetamine trafficking and 1.4% of
cases involved simple possession.

The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) II program
is designed to gather information on drug use and
related matters from adult male offenders within 48
hours of arrest. ADAM II serves as a critical source
of data for estimating trends in drug use in local
areas, understanding the relationship between drugs
and crime, and describing drug market activity in
the adult male arrestee population in 10 U.S. sites
during 2008. During 2008, the ADAM II program
collected data on methamphetamine use in 9 of its 10
sites. ADAM II data indicate that methamphetamine
use remains primarily a regional phenomenon. Self
reported methamphetamine use is significantly higher
in Sacramento, CA and Portland, OR when compared to
other sites.

Production & Trafficking

Decreased domestic methamphetamine production is
reducing wholesale supplies of domestically produced
methamphetamine. The decreased production is a
result of law enforcement pressure, public awareness
campaigns and increased regulation of the sale and
use of precursor and essential chemicals used in
methamphetamine production. However, decreases in
domestic methamphetamine production have been offset
by increased production in Mexico.

Methamphetamine is easily produced in clandestine
laboratories or meth labs using a variety of
ingredients available in stores. The manufacturing
of methamphetamine is called "cooking". Cooking a
batch of meth can be very dangerous due to the fact
that the chemicals used are volatile and the
by-products are very toxic. Meth labs present a
danger to the meth cook, the community surrounding
the lab, and the law enforcement personnel who
discover the lab.

The Hazardous Substances Emergency Events
Surveillance (HSEES) system collects and analyzes
data about the public health consequences (e.g.,
morbidity, mortality, and evacuations) of acute
hazardous substance—release events. Of the 40,349
events reported to the HSEES system during January
1, 2000—June 30, 2004, a total of 1,791 (4%) were
associated with illicit meth production. Meth events
consistently had a higher percentage of persons with
injuries than did nonmeth events. Of the 1,791 meth
events, 558 (31%) resulted in a total of 947 injured
persons.

Law enforcement reporting indicates that
methamphetamine laboratories have been discovered on
Federal lands throughout the United States.
Methamphetamine laboratories often are discovered in
or near caves, cabins, recreational areas, abandoned
mines and private vehicles located on or adjacent to
Federal lands.

State and Federal precursor chemical restrictions,
combined with sustained law enforcement pressure,
have reduced domestic methamphetamine production
over the past several years. Reported
methamphetamine laboratory seizures have decreased
sharply each year since 2004; the year that states
began implementing strong, retail-level sales
restrictions of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine
products. Moreover, in September 2006 the Federal
Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 became
effective nationwide, setting restrictions on the
retail sale of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine
products. This Act appears to be contributing to
continued decreases in domestic methamphetamine
production.

Although intelligence indicates a decrease in
domestic methamphetamine production, Mexican
methamphetamine distribution networks are expanding
in many U.S. drug markets and have supplanted many
local midlevel and retail dealers in areas of the
Great Lakes, Pacific, Southeast, Southwest and West
Central Regions of the country. Mexico is the
primary source of methamphetamine within the United
States and methamphetamine production in that
country remains high. Moreover, large-scale
production of methamphetamine has increased
significantly in Canada as outlaw motorcycle gangs
and Asian drug trafficking organizations expand
their position with respect to methamphetamine
production in Canada.

Legislation

Methamphetamine is a Schedule II narcotic under the
Controlled Substances Act (CSA), Title II of the
Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act
of 1970. The chemicals that are used to produce
methamphetamine are also controlled under the
Comprehensive Methamphetamine Control Act of 1996
(MCA). This legislation broadened the controls on
listed chemicals used in the production of
methamphetamine, increased penalties for the
trafficking and manufacturing of methamphetamine and
listed chemicals, and expanded the controls of
products containing the licit chemicals ephedrine,
pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine (PPA).

Signed in October 2000, the Children's Health Act of
2000 includes provisions dealing with
methamphetamine prevention, production, enforcement,
treatment and abuse.

On March 9, 2006, President Bush signed the USA
PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005,
which includes provisions to strengthen Federal,
state, and local efforts to combat the spread of
methamphetamine.